Google Lays Off Nearly 1,000 Across Pixel, Nest, Fitbit and More

Google has confirmed the elimination of approximately a thousand roles, impacting various divisions including Google Assistant and the core engineering teams.

A company spokesperson confirmed to The Verge that it had cut “a few hundred” jobs at each of Google’s divisions including core engineering teams and Google Assistant.

These layoffs are not isolated incidents but part of a series of cuts across different sectors of the company. Earlier reports from 9to5Google and Semafor had already highlighted layoffs within the Google hardware team. The New York Times also reported on the engineering team layoffs.

9to5Google says Google’s reorganizing its independent teams from Pixel, Nest, Fitbit and more into one. Instead of working independently, teams will unify into hardware and software for example, like what we see at Apple.

Also, Fitbit co-founders James Park and Eric Friedman, plus other associated executives are also departing Google. The company’s augmented reality hardware team will see a few hundred roles cut.

Google spokesperson Courtenay Mencini, in an earlier conversation with The Verge, did not specifically mention these layoffs but indicated that “a number of our teams made changes to become more efficient and work better,” adding that “some teams are continuing to make these kinds of organizational changes, which include some role eliminations globally.”

There’s speculation that Google might be attempting to distribute the impact of this news gradually. This strategy follows revelations from the Epic v. Google trial, indicating Google’s practice of influencing media narratives, points out The Verge.

The tech cutoffs and onslaught of this uncertain economy are not done just yet. We could be seeing more job cuts come to light soon.